RANJIT MULLICK Vs. APARESH MULLICK & ANR.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application by one of the sebaits and trustees of Sri Sri Issore Lukhi Thakooranee for a leave to sell one of the deities' property in premises No. 197 Bipin Behari Ganguly Street, Bowbazar, Kolkata.

(2.) Mr. Sen, learned Counsel representing the petitioner has submitted that this application has become necessary in view of the restrictive clause in the Deed of Trust against alienation. The said clause reads as :

(3.) Mr. Sen has submitted that after the death of the settler, Nilmoy Mullick became the sebait and after his death, his three sons became the sebaits/trustees of the trust/debutter estate. By a registered deed of appointment dated 31st October 1997, the petitioner and the respondent No. 1 were appointed as trustees of the said debuter Estate. By a subsequent deed of appointment dated 11th day February 2014, the respondent No. 2 was appointed trustee/sebait of the said debutter. The said trust property is a two storied building constructed sometime in the year 1815 and since inception was fully tenanted. The income accruing from the trust property was at all material times used for meeting the expenses of the said debutter estate. There are presently 16 tenants in occupation of different portions of the said property most of whom are in occupation for more than 40 to 50 years. The total monthly rental income is Rs. 5,335/- only. The abode of the deity is at Premises No. 4, Hari Sarkar Lane, Kolkata - 700007. The said building is a two-storied structure and is more than 200 years old. The said premises is also the dwelling house of the family of the settlor and it is in this property that the deity is consecrated. No income accrues from the said property. There are substantial statutory outgoings. Presently a sum of Rs. 51,000/- is due to the Municipal Corporation. The petitioner disclosed the letter of intimation from the KMC. It is further stated in the petition that the monthly rental income of the debutter is enough to meet the expenses of daily seba puja. A sum of Rs. 7,500/- is required every month to meet the daily seba puja of the deity. The petitioner in Annexure-F has disclosed such details. The trustees have stated that they are undergoing acute financial crisis and finding it difficult to maintain the said two properties. The estate has no income other than the paltry rental income of Rs. 5,335/- accruing from the Bowbazar property, which is by itself insufficient and inadequate to meet the expenses of daily seva puja of the deity. In order to tide over such financial difficulties, the trustees convened a meeting on 20.4.2018 and have unanimously resolved to take steps to augment the income of the estate and if required by sale of the present property subject to the permission obtained in this regard.